Everyone Has Secrets

Chapter 5

He hadn't seen her yet. Granted, it was only half eight in the morning, but he hadn't seen her yet. He was on his way to the main conference room, where the presence of all department heads was required for the morning briefing when he caught up with Sloan.

"Any idea what's so important about this meeting?" Mark asked him as they walked along.

"I haven't got a clue," Derek admitted, sitting down in one of the chairs beside Mark.

"What, still haven't seen your girlfriend?" Mark teased him with a chuckle.

"She's not my girlfriend, Mark," he glared over at his friend as his phone went off and he quickly checked it, seeing a missed call that could wait.

"Have you heard from Laura?"

Before Derek could respond, Ellis and Richard entered the room along with Meredith, whose appearance took his breath away. Her hair was down, resting on her shoulder in soft waves and she wore a tight black dress under her lab coat that came halfway down her thigh. It was professional but at the same time he could definitely imagine ripping it off her. Her eyes caught his a moment, and if she spoke she'd probably be scolding him for staring. He tried to divert his gaze to pay attention to Ellis as she began to speak, but his gaze kept flickering back to Meredith.

"Good morning everyone. We'll keep this as brief as possible, we know you're all very busy," Ellis began, none the wiser to the looks being shared between Derek and Meredith, "as some of you may be aware, for the past year Dr Webber and myself have been working to set up a foundation. The Grey Foundation, and today that foundation begins."

She paused as the group in the room applauded, Derek catching Meredith's eye with a raised eyebrow as he joined in with the applause and she gave him a discreet shake of her head, only confusing him further.

"Today, Dr Webber and I will be flying out to New York to begin a two week venture jam packed with business meetings, looking to recruit more hospitals into the foundation," she continued, "and as a result, I have asked my daughter, Dr Meredith Grey to stand in as Chief of Surgery for at least the next two weeks, as well as keeping an eye over the residency programme on Dr Webber's behalf."

"I look forward to working with you all," Meredith said with a smile to everyone in the room.

Derek leant back in his chair, interested to see that no one in the room seemed to oppose the decision. The meeting came to a close pretty quickly soon after that and he thought about catching up with Meredith before realising that was probably a bad idea right now.

"And now she's your boss," Mark said, clapping him on the back with a chuckle, "your chances seem to be getting slimmer and slimmer."

"Oh, get off it, Mark," he said with a roll of his eyes as they left the room. He couldn't deny that this was probably quite the obstacle to convincing her to go out with him, but she wouldn't be his boss forever.

****

"Right, we're off. I leave the hospital in your capable hands, Meredith. Call me if you need anything," Ellis said to her as they bid their goodbyes.

"I will, I promise, good luck and try to relax some," Meredith said with a soft laugh.

"We'll be back in two weeks," Ellis said, pressing a kiss to Meredith's cheek, and Richard waved goodbye before they left the office.

Meredith let out a breath she hadn't even realised she'd been holding as she sat in the chair behind the desk. This was not what she had been expecting when her mother asked her to talk a week ago. One minute Meredith was turning down being the head of neurosurgery, the next she was acting chief for the next two weeks.